Meet the International Staff
William Kaschak
Mr.
William Kaschak, Vice President for of NCSC International, has
more than 30 years experience in the international development arena. A former Peace Corps Volunteer, Mr.
Kaschak served for 24 years as an employee of US Agency for International
Development. His postings with USAID included assignments
as Deputy Program Office inTunisia, Deputy Project Development Officer in
Bolivia, Senior Project
Development Officer in Honduras, Associate Mission Director in
El
Salvador and Mission
Director in Guinea. He also served as Director of the
USAID/Africa Bureau's Democracy and Governance Office in Washington, D.C.
Upon retirement from USAID, Mr. Kaschak was appointed as the Executive
Director of the Jane Goodall Institute.
Subsequently, he worked for International Resources Group as a Chief of
Party for an Environmental Policy Design and Enforcement project in the
Dominican Republic. Mr. Kaschak holds a Ph.D. in Cultural
Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts and a certificate in Public
Policy from the U.S. Department of State through its Senior Management
Training program. A native English speaker, he is also fluent
in Spanish and French.
Wendy Betts
Ms. Wendy Betts, Senior Program Manager, received a BA in International Relations from the University of the Pacific and a Master's degree in International Relations/International Economics from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Ms. Betts has over ten years of experience in international development and rule of law reform in Eastern Europe. Prior to joining NCSC, she served as the Director of the War Crimes Documentation Project at the American Bar Association, where she managed projects in Kosovo and Sierra Leone.
Douglas Sheldon
Mr. Douglas Sheldon is a financial manager with over 30 years of experience
in international development programs. He is currently the
Director of Finance and Administration of the International
Programs Division of the National Center for State Courts. He
served as a Senior Foreign Service Officer with the United States Agency for
International Development, with Mission Controller assignments in Egypt,
Honduras, Peru, Lesotho, and Kenya. Mr. Sheldon speaks some Spanish.
Kala Finn
Ms. Kala M. Finn, Esq. Director
of the International Visitors Education Program & Project Manager,
received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN where
she graduated with a Major in Russian Studies, a Major in History, and a Minor
in Political Science. She received a J.D. from Franklin Pierce Law
Center in Concord, NH. She is responsible for the development of program
curriculum for educational study tours, and coordinating the visits of
international justice officials. Ms. Finn also serves as faculty for
these programs and, on occasion, accompanies multi-week study tour groups as
the programmatic facilitator. Ms. Finn came to the National Center in
2001. She has worked as a consultant for the Institute for Court
Management, and as an analyst with the Knowledge and Information Services
Division. Ms. Finn is an active member of the Virginia State Bar, and a
member of the American Bar Association and the National Association for Court
Management (NACM). She is proficient in Russian.
Timothy Hughes
Mr. Timothy Hughes, Senior Subject Matter Specialist, has ten years of experience working on rule of law initiatives. Most recently, he was the Chief of Party of the Justice Sector Development Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). That project involved institution building measures for the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council and the Ministry of Justice, in addition to court administration and criminal legal aid reform. Mr. Hughes served as a department head of the Independent Judicial Commission and planned and implemented the reappointment of all judges and prosecutors in BiH. His department also handled the investigation of complaints alleging misconduct against judges and prosecutors. In addition, Mr. Hughes served as legal counsel to an elections sub-commission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mr. Hughes worked as an attorney in a general law practice firm in Milwaukee, WI. Mr. Hughes has a Juris Doctor in law from the University of Wisconsin and a Master's degree in law from the University of Tubingen in Germany.
Katie Kampmann
Ms. Katie Kampmann, Program Manager,
joined NCSC in May 2007. Prior to that she served over sixteen years
managing and implementing USAID-funded projects in North and Sub-Saharan
Africa and Jordan. Her professional work experience
includes program development and project management, implementation,
monitoring, and evaluation. She has seven years experience in
grants management and civil society capacity building. She has extensive
experience in data analysis and data management and strong analytical and
writing abilities. She is fluent in French and speaks some Arabic.
Yirui Mu
Mr. Yirui Mu, MBA, is serving as a Senior Finance Manager with NCSC International. He received LL.B. from Peking University, MSB and MBA From Johns Hopkins University, and has 14 years of experience in financial management, compliance and analysis; planning, budgeting and forecasting, international accounting. During his tenure with Wang Labs Inc., Getronics Government Solutions and Morgan Franklin Corporation, he served as Senior Financial Analyst, Consultant, Business Management Analyst and Accountant. Mr. Yirui Mu also has more than 7 years international experience in research, translation and cooperation with multi country foundations, officials and scholars in dealing with international affairs and seminars with Chinese Association for International Understanding. He is fluent in Chinese.
Michael Sweikar
Mr. Michael Sweikar is the Program Manager for NCSC's Kosovo Justice Support Program (KJSP). He received a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame, with a major in Political Science. Mr. Sweikar earned a J.D. from William & Mary Law School and a M.A. in Public Policy from the Thomas Jefferson School of Public Policy at William & Mary. He has been admitted to the North Carolina State Bar. He previously worked in the Research Division of NCSC, focusing on the 2005 Civil Justice Survey of State Courts and investigating issues related to alternative dispute resolution. Mr. Sweikar served as a researcher in British Parliament and has participated in several studies in conjunction with the Carter Center, CARE, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Norma Parker
Ms. Norma Parker, Project Director, joined NCSC in April 2005 after serving as a full time consultant for eight months. Prior to joining on a full time basis, Ms. Parker was an independent consultant in democracy and ROL for five years. Ms Parker has 31 years in the USAID's foreign service, including 10 years in the senior foreign service, ending her government career as the Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau. She has in-depth experience in managing complex, multi-sectoral development programs, large professional staffs and multi-million dollar budgets. While at USAID Ms. Parker developed the first ROL and Democracy and Governance program for the Agency. She also worked on numerous presidential initiatives under seven US Presidents and most especially developed for the Clinton Administration the Eastern Caribbean Initiative. She has also served on numerous election observation missions (Peru, Haiti), led USG representatives to international donor meetings in Paris and Brussels and worked on the Andean Drug Initiative. The majority of these programs or representations included ROL. She is a Project Director for Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Latin America and the Caribbean and for management and marketing issues for the Division. She holds a Masters from Georgetown University in Latin America Studies.
Cassandra Crawford
Ms. Cassandra Crawford joined NCSC as an Administrative Manager in 2008.
She has 20 year of experience in providing office management, executive, and
membership development support to to profit and not-for-profit organizations
in the Washington D.C. area. She is working on her B.S. degree in
Social Work from Bowie State University and has an A.A. degree in General
Studies from Prince George's Community College.
Lori Yamamoto
Ms. Lori Yamamoto is a Program Manager with NCSC International. With more than 15 years in the private and public sector, Ms. Yamamoto has designed and managed diverse international programs in Afghanistan, Benin, Egypt, Mali, Cote d'Ivoire, Burundi, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Guinea and Madagascar. Her work experience includes participation in evaluative missions in post-conflict/post-genocide African countries, work with the U.S. Department of State in the political and economic section of the U.S. embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal and local community development with the U.S. Peace Corps in Niger, West Africa. She is fluent in French and Hausa, a West African language, and received her B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Virginia and a Master's degree from Columbia University in International Affairs with a concentration in Political and Economic Development.
Maryann Nolan
Ms. Maryann Nolan is a Project Associate with NCSC
International. She received a B.A. from the University of Virginia, with a major in Government and Foreign Affairs. Ms. Nolan earned a J.D. from William & Mary Law School in May 2007. While in law school, she participated in internship and fellowship programs with the International Bridges to Justice program in in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; the Center for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA)in Cordoba, Argentina; and the Office of the Public Defender in Fairfax, Virginia. From 2003 to 2004, Ms. Nolan worked as an Intelligence Research Specialist at the United States Department of Treasury, FinCEN and a Policy Analyst at R. M. Vredenburg & Co. She served as a Youth and Families at Risk Volunteer in Peace Corps Ecuador from 1999 - October 2001. Ms. Nolan is the Project Associate for NCSC's project in Kosovo. She is fluent in Spanish.
Pamela Fahey
Ms. Pamela Fahey joined NCSC in 2008 as the Project Director, Kosovo. Ms. Fahey has more than 27 years of experience in substantive law as well as project management. She is an experienced team leader with 20 years experience in project management and development of legal systems, human rights, and criminal law programs. She has managed Rule of Law projects in Kosovo (ABA/CEELI and OSCE) as well in Georgia, where she was Team Leader for a Reform of the Procuracy project for three years. She has extensive knowledge of civil law criminal justice systems, especially Georgian and FRY criminal laws and extensive knowledge of the European Convention on Human Rights. She is experienced in the provision of technical assistance and project identification for projects supporting judicial reform and training, court reform, penal reform, and reform of prosecution services. Ms. Fahey developed a rule of law program in Kosovo, including development of court systems, judges associations, and bar associations. She has over 15 years experience in the design and delivery of training courses for judges, court staff, administrative staff, prosecutors, and defence attorneys, including training needs analysis, the development of curriculum, and the preparation of training materials.
Mrs. Catherin Cattafesta is an economist
with a major in Economic Policy and Sustainable Development from Universidad
Nacional of Costa Rica. She has over 12 years of experience in policy making,
environmental enforcement, research, training, and planning. A former officer of
the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of the Dominican Republic
(SEMARENA), for the last 5 years she worked for a USAID Environmental Policy
Project in the D.R., focusing on policy instruments drafting (sectoral laws,
norms, regulations and procedures), environmental legislation enforcement, and
free trade related analysis. Her involvement with the negotiation process of the
DR-CAFTA in support of SEMARENA negotiators and her subsequent support to the
treaty implementation have given her an important background on DR-CAFTA
implementation issues in the environmental field. She currently works for the
National Center for State Courts as a Senior Project Manager. She is fluent in
Spanish and Italian.
Ms. Marta Hernandez, Project Assistant, has extensive experience in international program administration and human resources management for the Foreign Service. She joined NCSC after relocating from Caracas, Venezuela, where she served for several years as the Human Resources Advisor to the HR Director at the U.S. Embassy in Caracas. Her expertise includes local labor law, employment contracts, legal translation and interpretation, and records management. She is fluent in English and Spanish. She has a B.A. in Liberal Arts and a Certificate of Legal Translation from the Metropolitan University, Caracas, Venezuela.
Ms. Edina B. Orth is a Project Associate with the International
Visitors Program, NCSC. Ms. Orth has extensive experience in working with
international and U.S. government institutions. Prior to joining NCSC, she was a
contractor for the United States Department of State where she worked as
consecutive and simultaneous interpreter for officials from former Yugoslavia
and provided support in organizing and carrying out programs for high level
foreign officials. During her career, she contracted with NATO Stabilization
Forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina where she worked on economic development
projects and assisted military and non-governmental agencies in organizing
return of refugees. She is a candidate for B.S. in Global Business and Public
Policy at the University of Maryland. Ms. Orth is fluent in
Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian.